Hi, I'm new to the forum. I have two Cavaliers, a male aged four and a female aged two. The male is very healthy but sadly the same cannot be said for my girl. She's been scratching badly now for several months and the vet has ruled out many things including fleas and most allergies. She's been on a trial prescription diet for the past few weeks to see if her original diet could have been the problem, however after a few weeks on it she's still scratching. I don't know what the vet will check for next but I'm becoming increasingly concerned that she's got SM. She's now scratching herself so much that her skin is becoming raw. I was wondering what experiences other members have with Cavalier scratching ? could this just be a bad allergy ? Thanks in advance.

28th November 2008, 11:56 PM

Tania

Hi

Please get her checked by a specialist! I have two, a boy and a girl, last Thursday Molly was diagnosed with sm. We are devastated. The boy Dougall hasn't been tested yet but will be on Wednesday. Molly didn't scratch at all and didn't show classic symptoms, she became lame which was diagnosed as ligaments in her shoulders. Poor Molly was suffering really bad nerve pain. She never showed any sign of pain to us, fortunately we never forced her to do anything because I was unsure about why she didn't want to go off on walks and a few other things that were strange. Evetually, we took her to a joint specialist, he told us before he did the MRI he suspected sm. Even though we are devastated, we are treating the terrible pain and being extra careful with her. The prognosis is not good as she is severe, please bear in mind she did not scratch at all. However we have the problem with Dougall, he is going to possibly lose his best friend. We are going to see Dr. Rusbridge in Wimbledon on Wednesday, if you can get your lovely girlie to a specialist as soon as possible in case she is suffering pain.